0 the junior senator. >> anthony weiner, five points up now. >> i got some opinions on anthony weiner that had nothing to do with the pictures, i think it would be the bad good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. thank you for joining us on a fascinating, frustrating news night. tonight, on "all in" we know where he is, at least re we think we do. i'll tell you where we believe the nsa leaker edward snowden is holed up at this very minute and why the trouble this guy is causing u.s. government has only just begun. plus president barack obama stood in the 93 degree heat today and delivered the speech al gore called the best ever on climate given by a president. we will bring you the highlights. but we begin tonight with the truly stunning decision by the supreme court where, if i may speak metaphorically, i believe john roberts' court took out a knife and plunged it into the voting rights act soft underbelly and dragged the dying gasping body across the street on to the steps of the capitol building and left it there with a note to congress saying it would be a shame if this law were to die. the decision in this case, shelby county v. holder is one i believe will go down in history as one of this court's absolute worst. it was an act of supreme judicial hubris and activism. ruled a key provision of the voting rights act unconstitutional and thus in the short term killed off the core of that act. now, whether it can be revived is an open question, one we'll visit in a moment. first, you have to understand what the court did today. there was a lot of confusion because it was complicated on purpose. i want to just walk through it. section 5 is often referred to as the heart of the voting rights act. it requires what's known as preclearance of any changes to the way elections are run in certain parts of this country. now, what is so brilliant about its approach? informed by history, is in the battle days before the voting rights act, some racist locality would enact some new voting rule to make it harder or impossible for black people to vote. sure, those people could sue but might be a year or two before your lawsuit was heard and in the meantime the election in question would have happened and the damage would have been done. this happened all the time. this is our history. and the genius of section 5 of the voting rights act is it's a preemptive, proactive means of not allowed to just enact whatever restrictive voting rules they want. ny changes to voting rules. this is what the voting rights act protects us from. united states congress has reauthorized the voting rights act four times. most recently in 2006 by huge bipartisan margins. but today in a 5-4 majority decision, authored by chief justice john roberts, a man who has expressed skepticism toward the voting rights act from the time he was a young lawyer in the reagan justice department. the court decided that the formula congress passed is unconstitutional. that congress just did it wrong. they didn't like their math. this despite the fact that the 15th amendment for which hundreds of thousands of americans died, and which explicitly gives congress the authority to enforce right to vote, despite the plain text of that part of the constitution, nope, said roberts and alito and thomas and kennedy and scalia. we don't like the way you did it. so they struck it down. and then said to congress, if you want to keep that law, you seem to like so much, then fix it in a way that we like. if that sounds ambiguous, complicated, it is ambiguous and complicated. it is by design. let's be very clear about what that means. what the roberts court majority wants to do is, i think quite clearly, kill off section 5 of the voting rights act. the preclearance provision altogether. they understand how politically toxic that would be. they have come up instead with a clever way of killing it without admitting to killing it. these are people that sit just a block away from the capitol. they look out at the house caucus. they know who this congress is. who it represents. and what it does every day. they know how unlikely it is that this congress will be able to save the voting rights act, come up with a new formula that suits the supreme court. we all know how unlikely that is. so all the people telling you today, the law's not dead, they are right. but it's wounded. and before we move on to how it might be saved, which is absolutely a moral and legal imperative, and can be done, let us not skip too quickly over the part where the supreme court tried to kill it today. joining me now is congressman john conyers, a democrat from michigan. he's also a founding member of the congressional black caucus. and congressman, as someone who has lived this history, and watched this history, and knows what this act means, what is your reaction to the court's decision today? >> well, chris, you said it so well. we've driven a dagger through the heart of the voting rights act. it is one of the decisions, i thought citizens united was about the worst decision i would ever see in these times from the supreme court, but this -- this drives a dagger through it and it gives us an enormous challenge because everyone knows that the house is quite partisan. we're quite divided on almost everything. and it's going to take a real skill to bring people together, and the one thing that we all understand it's got to be bipartisan. >> yes. >> the voting rights act and the deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights at the u.s. department of justice where she oversaw the enforcement of this act and now a senior policy analyst at the ole miss society foundation. dave, can i begin with you? you argued this case. you read the decision. >> yes. >> why did they strike down? what -- can you explain to me what specifically the 5-4 majority found unconstitutional about the current formula that is used by congress? >> in a sense the court put itself in a position you'd expect congress and the legislature to be in. they were grappling with the progress that we've made as a nation. and what we said in our brief and what i'll say today, we should not get hung up and misunderstand something fundamental. the idea we made progress shouldn't mean we can't stop striving to make more progress. the court got stuck on this point because there's been progress in voting we need to cease and reassess how we proceed. >> justice ruth bader ginsburg said throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rain storm because you not getting wet. hubris is a fit word for today's demolition of the vra." did it strike you, sitting there in the department of justice looking at this paperwork that the formula that congress had come up with then which was essentially reauthorized was capricious or arbitrary or ridiculous? >> not at all, chris. i think what our experience was in the department and has been for a lot of the voting rights advocate, the jurisdictions that were covered by section 5 were those jurisdictions that needed to be covered by section 5. the history of discrimination and the current day effects. it's an important point that justice roberts, in his opinion, made it seem as if we were in the reauthorization only relying on what had happened a long time ago to determine which jurisdiction need to continue to have the preclearance obligations, when, in fact, what congress did in 2006 was to look very carefully at recent incidents of voting discrimination, what was happening to real voters in real places. justice roberts and the court just got it wrong. they haven't walked in the shoes of john lewis. they haven't walked to see what discrimination looks like and where it looks that way. >> and they just also, i mean, this is just an amazing act of just of judicial activism. they have just told congress -- it's just incredible to me. the question to me, it strikes me, isn't how much progress there is or whether there's been progress. it's who gets to decide the appropriate remedy for the problem on the table. and today the supreme court, debo, said we do. >> that's what's stunning. justice kagan put this question to our adversary during the oral argument. she said, who gets to decide? and the constitution on this point is crystal clear. the 15th amendment puts it with congress to enforce the amendment against racial discrimination in voting. congress looked at this very carefully, as julie mentioned, and studies done at the time and since have shown that the repetitive and adaptive discrimination happens in certain places. congress never said the voting discrimination only happens there. what it said is we need a special response in the places where the case-by-case method is inadequate. >> really important point, too. these distinction are not preserved in amber. there is a way, if you feel like, oh, i'm the city of boston, this is unfair, we're under the voting rights act and have a really clean record, you can get out of it, right? >> the whole idea of there being a formula is not really accurate. it was really a way to identify in '65 and '72 when it was modified. a way to identify those jurisdictions that needed this type of remedy. but then the idea was when they can demonstrate they don't need any more, they can bail out. jurisdictions do it all the this is the pursuit of perfection. because the ultimate expression foour neighbors....l. and our communities... america's beverage companies have created... a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more.. protest. the "rachel maddow show" will be covering this story coming up. you definitely want to stick around for that. we'll be right back. la's known definitely for its traffic, congestion, for it's smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the busses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution to the earth. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment. happy birthday! it's a painting easel! the tide's coming in! this is my favorite one. it's upside down. oh, sorry. (woman vo) it takes him places he's always wanted to go. that's why we bought a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. this decision represents a serious setback for voting rights and has the potential to negatively effect millions of americans across the country. >> this is a sad day. i would hope that the congress would step in. >> we're going to work with congress in this effort and the administration can do everything in our power to ensure fair and equal voting processes are maintained. >> that is just some of the reaction from washington officials today after the supreme court basically said that until congress fixes it, section 5 of the voting rights act is dead. in the near term, at least, it really is up to congress and with the house under republican control and needing 60 votes to get anything done in the senate that it's unlikely that you're going to see preclearance be done by congress in that format. and i think that's probably correct if i had to guess. i don't know all the facts that were before the supreme court in terms of how they looked to various municipalities and various states that actually have been named and placed into the voting rights act and saying there's been a change over a period of time. maybe there's some, you know, credibility to that. i don't necessarily agree with the decision, but the idea that this congress is going to make changes, i think, is fairly unlikely. but there's a remedy and the remedy is if somebody is wronged, they have the right to bring suit and to reinstate -- >> you're referring to section 2 of the voting rights act which does remain intact but does not have the preemptive effect. hearing congressman castle talking about the congress you go to work in every day, you work with those colleagues across the aisle. what is your sense of whether this congress can come together around a new formula? >> you know, i believe that when politicians feel the heat, they see the light. and that if citizens step up and tell this congress that they expect every american to have equal and fair right to vote and in jurisdictions where that right has historically interfered with that they want some preclearance, i think we will get it. now, i'll tell you that, you know, things like the voting rights act, they have had a high degree of bipartisanship over the years. i think voting rights are different. i mean, the fact is that the last time this bill was reauthorized, you had ample support on both sides of the aisle for it. i mean, you know, congressman sensenbrenner voted for it, congressman goodlatte did, congressman castle who's with us tonight did. i don't see why any of these gentlemen or ladies would want to back away from their prior commitment. i think we step up to the plate. we get hearings started right away. i've been talking with colleagues. i know that we're getting this thing rolling right away. and i know that senator leahy is, too. but i think this is a moment when all americans, black, white, latino, asian, need to say, equal right to vote for all and be real clear on it. this is a moment for that. >> congressman castle, can i ask you a question just as a matter of institutional personal pride. you're someone who's had a tremendously accomplished career in politics, and you voted. you cast a vote for reauthorization based on the hearings, based on the testimony, based on your judgment, based on being the elected representative in the article 1 institution in our proud republic. and the court today just said you didn't do your job. that is the message from the john roberts opinion is that you screwed up, you didn't do a good enough job in figuring out whether this was the right way to use the formula. do you feel at all personally insulted by that? >> well, perhaps a little bit. as i said, i don't know all the facts that were before the supreme court, so i'm reluctant to be too critical, but, yeah, it bothers me. as i said, i don't necessarily agree with the underlying premise of this particular decision, but, you know, they made it and now congress has to go to work. you know, the congressman makes what i consider to be very valid points. that is the members of the house and senate need to sit down and at least see if they can work this out. if they can't, i think you will see court remedies that will eventually straighten it out. whether that's sooner or later, i'm not 100% sure. but the bottom line is, you know, one can be critical of the supreme court in this, and i can understand the reaction of those who believe in civil rights. as i do in all this. but perhaps they knew something that i didn't and perhaps others did not. exactly. >> congressman ellison, let me ask you this. what i find maddening here is the court said this formula doesn't work for us, we think it violates an unspecified part of the constitution. what is to say whatever you come up with is going to, you know, pass the liking of these same five justices if you do come up with the formula? >> you know, when justice scalia said that he believes that somebody's sort of -- i think the term of art that he used was -- oh my goodness, i'm blanking on it. >> racial entitlement. >> racial entitlement. thank you. when he used that terminology, it was clear to me he had a certain perspective on things and that his preconceived ideas about civil rights law, voting rights law, were going to prevail. i mean, look, congress did a lot of work. 15,000 pages. all kinds of hours of testimony. a number of egregious cases cited. it was all there, but, you know, no amount of facts is going to overcome somebody's ideology. congress has to sit down and get it done. we have a bipartisan history of standing up for the right to vote. look, we can argue about taxes, we can argue about trade, we can go back and forth on immigration, but give the people a right to vote. >> congressman keith ellison, democrat from minnesota. former republican congressman mike castle of delaware. thank you, gentlemen, for your time. >> thank you. why today's supreme court decision on voting rights act creates huge problems, huge problems for the republican party. coming up. new flamed out mascara from covergirl. the volume igniter brush shapes each lash up and out for bigger hotter flamed out volume. new flamed out mascara. hot enough for you? easy breezy beautiful covergirl. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. hurry, before this opportunity cools off.